Council votes to fight wind turbines plan

PUBLISHED: 06:48 25 May 2006 | UPDATED: 09:20 24 May 2010

CAMPAIGNERS fighting proposals for a wind farm between Brent Knoll and Burnham have had a major success this week. Brent Knoll Parish Council decided to object to plans to build five wind turbines at Inner Farm near the village at a meeting on Monday. Alm

CAMPAIGNERS fighting proposals for a wind farm between Brent Knoll and Burnham have had a major success this week.Brent Knoll Parish Council decided to object to plans to build five wind turbines at Inner Farm near the village at a meeting on Monday.Almost 100 residents attended the meeting where councillors voted unanimously to take a stand against bosses at green firm Ecotricity.Ecotricity officially submitted its planning application to Sedgemoor District Council last month.The parish council says the wind farm will generate noise problems, as well as affecting the appearance of the village and the surrounding landscape.In the same week members of an action group set up to oppose the wind farm have announced they have taken on a barrister and a planning consultant to help them fight their campaign.kNOll To Wind Farm spokesman, Andrew Manning, said: "We have appointed Peter Kendall, an experienced planning consultant with a long history in local government, to provide us with further and more detailed advice concerning national, regional and local planning policy."The action group understands Mr Kendall in turn has appointed Tina Douglass, a very experienced barrister who has been involved with a number of wind farm proposals, to support him."KNOll To Wind Farm has also been putting letters through residents' doors this week to tell them where they can look at the planning application and how they can register an objection.The group also claims in its letters that 'the application allows for structures even higher than originally mentioned, potentially up to 120 metres.'A Sedgemoor District Council spokesman said: "It says clearly in the planning application and in the drawings that the turbine is 78 metres high but at the top of the structure you have to allow for the blades. The structure is 78 metres high and the blades are 41 metres.